Stent-ing Tall

Dr Robert Byrne from Munich,Germany,presented this data in Chicago on March 30,at the conference of American College of Cardiology. “It is a moment of great pride and shall inspire confidence for the idea of Indian manufacturing of high-end devices by Indian companies. We have proven that we are as good as the American DES and yet shall provide our DES at 35-40 percent lower cost than the American multinationals,” says Gurmit Singh,managing director,Translumina Therapeutics Pvt Ltd. “YUKON PC has created new standards and will also encourage other Indian manufacturers to undertake good clinical trials,” he mentions.

Till date,Indian patients had a choice of only imported medicated stents from the USA,which are available at a price range of Rs 90,000 and Rs 1,00,000. “Since most of the patients in India pay from their pocket,these high prices of stents prevented them to access the treatment of angioplasty,” says Singh.

Drug-eluting stents are scaffolds placed in the peripheral or coronary arteries (which supply to the heart) that slowly release drug to prevent restenosis or re-occlusion of the artery. They are superior to bare-metal stents (BMS) in preventing recurrence of arterial stenosis. Experts believe that by 2015,India will have more than 6.15 crore people suffering from coronary heart disease,with a significant number of the patients being in the age group of 20 to 29 years.

Singh says,“The YUKON PC has a microporus surface,which is just one-fourth of the polymeric load as compared to other DES required to attain optimum drug release. It then becomes a polymer-free stent as the polymer gets degraded as soon all the drug is released in 60 days and hence requires only limited anti-platelet therapy.”